NEW YORK – BioMérieux on Wednesday reported sales growth of 16 percent for the first half of 2020 compared to the first half of 2019.
The French diagnostics firm reported total sales of €1.48 billion ($1.75 billion) for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020, up from €1.28 billion for the first half of 2019.
For the first half of the year, its clinical applications sales were up 19 percent at €1.26 billion versus €1.06 billion for the first half of 2019. The firm's industrial applications had sales of €218.8 million, a slight increase from €218.3 million.
Within clinical applications, sales for BioMérieux's molecular biology products brought in revenues of €557.3 million in the first half of the year, up 69 percent from €326.3 million in the first half of 2019. Microbiology product sales were €460.4 million versus €484.5 million in H1 2019, a 4 percent decline. Sales of immunoassays dropped 14 percent to €195 million from €229.2 million in the first half of 2019. Sales for other product lines jumped sharply to €44.7 million in H1 2020 from €16.7 million in H1 2019.
For the second quarter, total revenues for the Marcy l’Étoile, France-based firm were €707 million, an approximately 11 percent increase over €643 million in the prior-year quarter.
The results were consistent with preliminary earnings the firm issued in July.
Sales for its clinical applications in the second quarter jumped nearly 14 percent to €601.6 million from €529.8 million year over year, while industrial applications generated revenues of €105.8 million, a 7 percent decline from €113.7 million. Sales in the firm's molecular biology unit increased 71 percent to €264.1 million in Q2 from €154.1 million year over year, while microbiology sales were down 16 percent to €208.7 million from €247.1 million
BioMérieux said in a statement accompanying the results that the Biofire Filmarray product line reported "remarkable growth" in the second quarter of the year, driven by a new version of a respiratory panel that included SARS-CoV-2. It added that the Biofire installed base of instruments grew to 14,000 units at the end of June versus 10,400 at the end of 2019.
The firm noted that its microbiology business was negatively "impacted by the slowdown in reagent sales across all product lines due to the decline in hospital visits, while equipment sales rose steeply during the quarter."
By region, BioMérieux sales in the Americas in Q2 rose 28 year over year to €364.7 million from €285.7 million driven by FilmArray sales. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa declined 3 percent year over year, while sales in Asia Pacific declined 6 percent.
BioMérieux's net income in the first half of 2020 jumped to €173 million, or €1.46 per share, from €141 million, or €1.19 per share, year over year.
Its R&D expenses jumped to €203 million in the first half of 2020 compared to €179 million in H1 2019, while its SG&A spending was €382 million for the first half of 2020. The firm did not provide a comparable SG&A figure for 2019.
BioMérieux said it won't issue new annual guidance due to uncertainties associated with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but "based on the robust first-half performance and the nature of BioMérieux's business, the favorable impact on financial results is expected to continue in the second half."